Common Culture at the Nothing Happens, Twice: Artists Explore the Absurdity of Life exhibition

Common Culture’s l Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On. I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On (Dave), newly commissioned for this group show, recasts the existentialist disquiet of Samuel Beckett through the use of the readymade performance of a stand-up comedian. Filmed for the duration of a forty-minute routine, the comic is spot-lit and isolated on a small stage in an empty performance space, a minimal setting evocative of a bare theatrical set rather than the venue for a comedy act. Bereft of an audience, the comedian’s rehearsed banter and routine starts to unravel from the very outset. His act now addresses the absence of an audience and the effect of the space upon him. He speaks about his fears of open spaces and of being like a snorkeler, deprived of oxygen— the audience.